The disappearance of the 'middle class' (forcing more and more people,including educated people, closer to the poverty line) combined with our attitude towards children and the expectation that women, especially professional women with average salaraies who can't necessarily afford to hire private help, can do it all (career, parenting, mnaging a household). In my experience, not that much has changed for men- they can just walk out the door and women are left holding the bag as it were.

Just an aside, I do not resent my children in the least. I resent a society that makes it so very difficult for me to be with them while they are little. And I am lucky- I am a professional who can work part time, but we are barely squeaking by. It's a lot of pressure and my marriage has fallen apart largely because of it.

I also think that one can have a successful family without both parents. My son actually seems happier and his behavior has improved since his dad moved out.

But I truly think that our social policies demonstrate that we don't value children, we haven't for a while, and if children are not important, families are not either.

This is just my personal opinion.... I think that the family with a mother and a father is still the best family structure. I didn't grow up with either, and I have to say that I wish I did. There is something special that is only learned thru a mother and something special thru a father that no one else can teach you. There is a sense of security, love, and closeness that I saw in others that had a mother and a father that I didn't have. Yes, people from unconventional families can have happy lives, I do, but I believe overall a nuclear family is the best for every member of the family.
In a single parent home, the child and the parent is missing the closeness and help needed from the missing parent that affects all the members of the family.

In a same sex family, the child is missing the experiences of a parents of the opposite sex then the one they have.

Anyway, this is just my personal opinion from my experience growing up in a urban inner city ghetto where single parents homes was the norm.

I find this such a hard question to answer. I am one of these annoying people that questions the definitions and implicit meanings behind some of the words in the question! But I'll try, just in case it can help you in some way.

As a liberal, conservative, or centrist, what is your position on the status and future of American families?

I don't really consider myself any of those things, but if I have to choose, I definitley choose liberal.

I think "American families" should not just mean couples with children or even single people with children. It should include all sorts of couplings and individuals without children. Political rhetoric that focuses only on one kind of family really bothers me. It makes me think that the future for people who don't fit into a married-with-children mold are not even cared about or represented by our government.

I'm concerned about the health and financial status of American families and individuals. I'm afraid that if things continue as they have been, with profits being more important to government than people, that most Americans will become poorer and less physically and mentally healthy. The future will be bright, however, for a very few wealthy American "families."

I think all of our futures would be brighter if we had nationalized healthcare, if our tax system was structured to actually redistribute wealth instead of to make the extremely wealthy even wealthier, and if the official povery line was at least doubled.

The American family, if it does not turn to God, looks to continue to diminish and break apart, leaving a society consisting of the bitter remains of increased child abuse, single parent/no parent children, lack of morality, lack of values, lack of self-worth and sense of self, a sense of entitlement, and complete lack of direction except within oneself (which is often faulty, especially given the wretched childhood background which is increasing these days).

The liberals who are trying to hijack the American government (not realizing the grave and desperate state of war/jihad that we are in but only seeking their own personal power and gain at the cost of safety of Americans) are (mis) leading this country into a state of total depravity. This condition, wherein people feel that "there is really no morality" (which ironically basically means that "their" sense of morality is the only one that is right, because the people whose morality says that there is a morality are "wrong") is leading to the degeneration of the nation's laws, prospects, safeguards, security, and hope. How can people flourish without security? The thought that "there is really no morality" is leading to the absolute demise of the American family.

I am a democrat and in most cases agree with the democrat way of thinking. I'm not trying to start a post war but I believe that those who are hanging on to the belief that the nuclear family can be preserved are fooling themselves. If you ask someone if their parents are still together, more often than not they are divorced.

A family can mean a mother and a child, a father and a child, two parents and children (be it gay or straight), grandparents who raise their grandchildren, one biological parent and a step parent, a couple with no children etc...

Also it is becoming harder and harder for normal people to make ends meet. Everything is increasing in price, but wages are not. Where I work no one has gotten a raise in 5 years, and they got a pay cut before the raises stopped. I have to get out of that place.

Companies want to pay less money for workers to do more. There will be a lot more outsourcing and loss of jobs. And just overall major money problems for the average american worker. All of the new houses being built in my state go for at least $500,000. What normal person can afford that?